Bull to Build Petaflop Supercomputer for DKRZ

Today the German computing center for climate research (DKRZ) announced a contract with Bull for the delivery of a petaflop supercomputer. With 45 petabytes of Lustre storage based on Xyratex ClusterStor technology, the system will run one of the largest files systems in the world.

We must be able to rely on supercomputers that incorporate the latest technological advances to be able to improve our climate forecasts. With the new system, for example, we hope to gain new insight into the forecasting of cloud formation,” explained Professor Dr. Jochem Marotzke, Director of the Max-Planck Institute of Meteorology, one of the main users of the DKRZ facilities.

Cooled with warm water, the new Bull system was designed for energy efficiency and is expected to demonstrate a PUE as low as 1.2. The PUE value is the ratio between the global energy consumption of the Data Center and the actual energy consumption of the computer. According to Bull, the system will also benefit from cooling research developed in a cooperative project with the Technical University of Dresden.

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